Provided by: smartmontools_7.3-1ubuntu0.23.10.1_amd64 bug

NAME

       smartd - SMART Disk Monitoring Daemon

SYNOPSIS

       smartd [options]

DESCRIPTION

       [This  man  page is generated for the Linux version of smartmontools.  It does not contain
       info specific to other platforms.]

       smartd is a daemon that monitors the Self-Monitoring, Analysis  and  Reporting  Technology
       (SMART)  system  built into most ATA/SATA and SCSI/SAS hard drives and solid-state drives.
       The purpose of SMART is to monitor the reliability of the hard  drive  and  predict  drive
       failures, and to carry out different types of drive self-tests.  This version of smartd is
       compatible with ACS-3, ACS-2, ATA8-ACS, ATA/ATAPI-7 and earlier standards (see  REFERENCES
       below).

       smartd  will  attempt to enable SMART monitoring on ATA devices (equivalent to smartctl -s
       on) and polls these and SCSI devices every 30 minutes (configurable), logging SMART errors
       and  changes of SMART Attributes via the SYSLOG interface.  The default location for these
       SYSLOG notifications and warnings  is  system-dependent  (typically  /var/log/messages  or
       /var/log/syslog).   To  change  this  default  location,  please see the '-l' command-line
       option described below.

       In addition to logging to a file, smartd can also be configured to send email warnings  if
       problems are detected.  Depending upon the type of problem, you may want to run self-tests
       on the disk, back up the disk, replace the disk, or use a manufacturer's utility to  force
       reallocation of bad or unreadable disk sectors.  If disk problems are detected, please see
       the smartctl manual page and the smartmontools web page/FAQ for further guidance.

       If you send a USR1 signal to smartd it will immediately check the status of the disks, and
       then  return  to  polling  the  disks  every  30  minutes.   See the '-i' option below for
       additional details.

       smartd can be  configured  at  start-up  using  the  configuration  file  /etc/smartd.conf
       (Windows: EXEDIR/smartd.conf).  If the configuration file is subsequently modified, smartd
       can be told to re-read the configuration file by sending it a HUP signal, for example with
       the command:
       killall -HUP smartd.

       On  startup,  if  smartd  finds a syntax error in the configuration file, it will print an
       error message and then exit.  However if smartd is already running, then is  told  with  a
       HUP  signal  to re-read the configuration file, and then find a syntax error in this file,
       it will print an error message and then continue, ignoring the contents  of  the  (faulty)
       configuration file, as if the HUP signal had never been received.

       When smartd is running in debug mode, the INT signal (normally generated from a shell with
       CONTROL-C) is treated in the same way  as  a  HUP  signal:  it  makes  smartd  reload  its
       configuration file.  To exit smartd use CONTROL-\.

       [Linux  only]  If smartd is started as a systemd(1) service and 'Type=Notify' is specified
       in the service file, the service manager is  notified  after  successful  startup.   Other
       state changes are reported via systemd notify STATUS messages.  Notification of successful
       reloads (after HUP signal) is not supported.  To detect this process start-up type, smartd
       checks  whether the environment variable 'NOTIFY_SOCKET' is set.  Note that it is required
       to set the '-n' ('--nofork') option in the 'ExecStart=/usr/sbin/smartd'  command  line  if
       'Type=Notify' is used.

       On  startup,  in the absence of the configuration file /etc/smartd.conf, the smartd daemon
       first scans for all devices that support SMART.  The scanning is done as follows:

       LINUX:   Examine all entries  "/dev/hd[a-t]"  for  IDE/ATA  devices,  and  "/dev/sd[a-z]",
                "/dev/sd[a-z][a-z]"   for  ATA/SATA  or  SCSI/SAS  devices.   Disks  behind  RAID
                controllers are not included.

                If directive '-d nvme' or no '-d' directive is  specified,  examine  all  entries
                "/dev/nvme[0-99]" for NVMe devices.

       smartd then monitors for all possible SMART errors (corresponding to the '-a' Directive in
       the configuration file; see the smartd.conf(5) man page).

OPTIONS

       -A PREFIX, --attributelog=PREFIX
              Writes smartd attribute information (normalized and raw attribute values) to  files
              'PREFIX''MODEL-SERIAL.ata.csv'  or 'PREFIX''VENDOR-MODEL-SERIAL.scsi.csv'.  At each
              check cycle attributes are logged as a line of semicolon separated triplets of  the
              form  "attribute-ID;attribute-norm-value;attribute-raw-value;".   For  SCSI devices
              error counters and temperature recorded in the form  "counter-name;counter-value;".
              Each line is led by a date string of the form "yyyy-mm-dd HH:MM:SS" (in UTC).

              If  this  option  is  not  specified,  attribute  information  is  written to files
              '/var/lib/smartmontools/attrlog.MODEL-SERIAL.ata.csv'.
              [NEW EXPERIMENTAL SMARTD FEATURE] If '-' is specified as  the  argument,  attribute
              log files are disabled.

              MODEL  and SERIAL are build from drive identify information, invalid characters are
              replaced by underline.

              If the PREFIX has the  form  '/path/dir/'  (e.g.  '/var/lib/smartd/'),  then  files
              'MODEL-SERIAL.ata.csv' are created in directory '/path/dir'.  If the PREFIX has the
              form     '/path/name'     (e.g.     '/var/lib/misc/attrlog-'),      then      files
              'nameMODEL-SERIAL.ata.csv'  are  created  in  directory '/path/'.  The path must be
              absolute, except if debug mode is enabled.

       -B [+]FILE, --drivedb=[+]FILE
              [ATA only] Read the drive database from FILE.  The new database replaces the  built
              in  database  by  default.   If  '+' is specified, then the new entries prepend the
              built in entries.  Please see the smartctl(8) man page for further details.

       -c FILE, --configfile=FILE
              Read smartd configuration  Directives  from  FILE,  instead  of  from  the  default
              location  /etc/smartd.conf  (Windows: EXEDIR/smartd.conf).  If FILE does not exist,
              then smartd will print an error message and exit with nonzero  status.   Thus,  '-c
              /etc/smartd.conf'  can be used to verify the existence of the default configuration
              file.

              By using '-' for FILE, the configuration is read  from  standard  input.   This  is
              useful for commands like:
              echo /dev/sdb -m user@home -M test | smartd -c - -q onecheck
              to perform quick and simple checks without a configuration file.

       -C, --capabilities[=mail]
              [Linux  only]  Use  libcap-ng  to drop unneeded Linux process capabilities(7).  The
              following  capabilities  are  kept  in   the   effective   and   permissive   sets:
              CAP_SYS_ADMIN,  CAP_SYS_RAWIO,  CAP_MKNOD.  If the '-u, --warn_as_user' option (see
              below) is used with a non-privileged user or group, the following capabilities  are
              also kept: CAP_SETGID, CAP_SETUID.  The capability bounding set is cleared.

              [NEW  EXPERIMENTAL  SMARTD  FEATURE]  Mail  notification is no longer suppressed if
              capabilities are dropped.  It depends on the local MTA whether mail could  be  send
              from a root process with all capabilities dropped.  It works with the postfix MTA.

              If  '--capabilities=mail' is specified, the following capabilities are added to the
              bounding set:  CAP_SETGID,  CAP_SETUID,  CAP_CHOWN,  CAP_FOWNER,  CAP_DAC_OVERRIDE.
              This allows one to send mail with the exim MTA.

       -d, --debug
              Runs  smartd  in  "debug"  mode.   In  this mode, it displays status information to
              STDOUT rather than logging it to SYSLOG and does not fork(2)  into  the  background
              and  detach  from  the controlling terminal.  In this mode, smartd also prints more
              verbose information about what it is doing than when operating  in  "daemon"  mode.
              In  this  mode,  the INT signal (normally generated from a terminal with CONTROL-C)
              makes smartd reload its configuration file.  Please use CONTROL-\ to exit

       -D, --showdirectives
              Prints a list (to STDOUT) of all the possible Directives which may  appear  in  the
              configuration   file  /etc/smartd.conf,  and  then  exits.   These  Directives  are
              described in the smartd.conf(5) man page.  They may  appear  in  the  configuration
              file following the device name.

       -h, --help, --usage
              Prints usage message to STDOUT and exits.

       -i N, --interval=N
              Sets  the  interval between disk checks to N seconds, where N is a decimal integer.
              The minimum allowed value is ten and the maximum is the  largest  positive  integer
              that  can  be  represented  on  your  system  (often  2^31-1).  The default is 1800
              seconds.
              [NEW EXPERIMENTAL SMARTD FEATURE] The interval could be  overridden  with  the  '-c
              i=N' directive, see smartd.conf(5) man page.

              Note  that  the superuser can make smartd check the status of the disks at any time
              by sending it the SIGUSR1 signal, for example with the command:
              kill -SIGUSR1 <pid>
              where <pid> is the process id number of smartd.  One may also use:
              killall -USR1 smartd
              for the same purpose.

       -l FACILITY, --logfacility=FACILITY
              Uses syslog facility FACILITY to log the messages from smartd.   Here  FACILITY  is
              one  of  local0,  local1,  ...,  local7, or daemon [default].  If this command-line
              option is not used, then by default messages from smartd are logged to the facility
              daemon.

              If  you  would like to have smartd messages logged somewhere other than the default
              location, include (for example) '-l local3' in its start up  argument  list.   Tell
              the  syslog  daemon  to  log  all  messages  from  facility local3 to (for example)
              '/var/log/smartd.log'.

              For more detailed information, please refer to the man pages for the  local  syslog
              daemon, typically syslogd(8), syslog-ng(8) or rsyslogd(8).

       -n, --no-fork
              Do  not fork into background; this is useful when executed from modern init methods
              like initng, minit, supervise or systemd.

       -p NAME, --pidfile=NAME
              Writes pidfile NAME containing the  smartd  Process  ID  number  (PID).   To  avoid
              symlink  attacks  make  sure  the  directory  to  which  pidfile is written is only
              writable for root.  Without this option, or if the --debug option is given, no  PID
              file  is  written  on startup.  If smartd is killed with a maskable signal then the
              pidfile is removed.

       -q WHEN, --quit=WHEN
              Specifies when, if ever, smartd should exit.   The  valid  arguments  are  to  this
              option are:

              nodev  -  Exit  if  there  are no devices to monitor, or if any errors are found at
              startup in the configuration file.  This is the default.

              errors - Exit if there are no devices to monitor, or if any errors are found in the
              configuration file /etc/smartd.conf at startup or whenever it is reloaded.

              nodevstartup - Exit if there are no devices to monitor at startup.  But continue to
              run if no devices are found whenever the configuration file is reloaded.

              never - Only exit if a fatal error occurs  (no  remaining  system  memory,  invalid
              command line arguments).  In this mode, even if there are no devices to monitor, or
              if the configuration file /etc/smartd.conf has errors, smartd will continue to run,
              waiting to load a configuration file listing valid devices.

              nodev0  -  [NEW  EXPERIMENTAL SMARTD FEATURE] Same as 'nodev', except that the exit
              status is 0 if there are no devices to monitor.

              nodev0startup - [NEW EXPERIMENTAL SMARTD FEATURE] Same  as  'nodevstartup',  except
              that the exit status is 0 if there are no devices to monitor.

              errors,nodev0 - [NEW EXPERIMENTAL SMARTD FEATURE] Same as 'errors', except that the
              exit status is 0 if there are no devices to monitor.

              onecheck - Start smartd in debug mode, then register devices, then  check  device's
              SMART status once, and then exit with zero exit status if all of these steps worked
              correctly.

              This last  option  is  intended  for  'distribution-writers'  who  want  to  create
              automated  scripts  to  determine  whether  or not to automatically start up smartd
              after installing smartmontools.   After  starting  smartd  with  this  command-line
              option,  the distribution's install scripts should wait a reasonable length of time
              (say ten seconds).  If smartd has not exited with zero status  by  that  time,  the
              script  should  send  smartd  a  SIGTERM or SIGKILL and assume that smartd will not
              operate correctly on the host.  Conversely, if smartd exits with zero status,  then
              it is safe to run smartd in normal daemon mode.  If smartd is unable to monitor any
              devices or encounters other problems then it will return with non-zero exit status.

              showtests - Start smartd in debug mode, then register devices, then write a list of
              future  scheduled  self tests to stdout, and then exit with zero exit status if all
              of these steps worked correctly.  Device's SMART status is not checked.

              This option is intended to test whether the '-s REGEX'  directives  in  smartd.conf
              will have the desired effect.  The output lists the next test schedules, limited to
              5 tests per type and device.  This is followed by a summary of all  tests  of  each
              device within the next 90 days.

       -r TYPE, --report=TYPE
              Intended  primarily  to  help  smartmontools  developers understand the behavior of
              smartmontools on non-conforming or poorly-conforming hardware.  This option reports
              details  of  smartd  transactions with the device.  The option can be used multiple
              times.  When used just once, it shows a record of the ioctl() transactions with the
              device.   When  used  more  than once, the detail of these ioctl() transactions are
              reported in greater detail.  The valid arguments to this option are:

              ioctl - report all ioctl() transactions.

              ataioctl - report only ioctl() transactions with ATA devices.

              scsiioctl - report only ioctl() transactions with SCSI devices.

              nvmeioctl - report only ioctl() transactions with NVMe devices.

              Any argument may include a positive integer to specify the  level  of  detail  that
              should  be  reported.   The argument should be followed by a comma then the integer
              with no spaces.  For example, ataioctl,2 The default level is 1, so '-r ataioctl,1'
              and '-r ataioctl' are equivalent.

       -s PREFIX, --savestates=PREFIX
              Reads/writes        smartd        state       information       from/to       files
              'PREFIX''MODEL-SERIAL.ata.state' or 'PREFIX''VENDOR-MODEL-SERIAL.scsi.state'.  This
              preserves  SMART  attributes,  drive  min and max temperatures (-W directive), info
              about last sent warning email (-m directive), and the time of  next  check  of  the
              self-test REGEXP (-s directive) across boot cycles.

              If  this  option  is  not  specified,  state  information  is  maintained  in files
              '/var/lib/smartmontools/smartd.MODEL-SERIAL.ata.state'   for   ATA   devices    and
              '/var/lib/smartmontools/smartd.VENDOR-MODEL-SERIAL.scsi.state' for SCSI devices.
              [NEW  EXPERIMENTAL SMARTD FEATURE] If '-' is specified as the argument, state files
              are disabled.

              MODEL and SERIAL are build from drive identify information, invalid characters  are
              replaced by underline.

              If  the  PREFIX  has  the  form  '/path/dir/' (e.g. '/var/lib/smartd/'), then files
              'MODEL-SERIAL.ata.state' are created in directory '/path/dir'.  If the  PREFIX  has
              the     form    '/path/name'    (e.g.    '/var/lib/misc/smartd-'),    then    files
              'nameMODEL-SERIAL.ata.state' are created in directory '/path/'.  The path  must  be
              absolute, except if debug mode is enabled.

              The  state  information  files  are  read  on smartd startup.  The files are always
              (re)written  after  reading  the   configuration   file,   before   rereading   the
              configuration  file  (SIGHUP),  before smartd shutdown, and after a check forced by
              SIGUSR1.  After a normal check cycle, a file is  only  rewritten  if  an  important
              change (which usually results in a SYSLOG output) occurred.

       -w PATH, --warnexec=PATH
              Run  the  executable  PATH  instead of the default script when smartd needs to send
              warning messages.  PATH must point to an executable binary  file  or  script.   The
              default script is /usr/share/smartmontools/smartd_warning.sh.

       -u USER[:GROUP], --warn-as-user=USER[:GROUP]
              [NEW  EXPERIMENTAL  SMARTD FEATURE] Run the warning script as a non-privileged user
              instead of root.  The USER and optional GROUP may be specified as  numeric  ids  or
              names.  If no GROUP is specified, the default group of USER is used instead.

              If  a warning occurs, a child process is created with fork(2).  This process closes
              all inherited file descriptors, connects stdio to /dev/null, changes the  user  and
              group ids, removes any supplementary group ids and then calls the popen(3) function
              from the standard library.

              If '0:0' is specified, user and group are not changed, but  the  remaining  actions
              still apply.

              If '-' is specified, popen(3) is called directly.  This is the default.

       -V, --version, --license, --copyright
              Prints version, copyright, license, home page and SVN revision information for your
              copy of smartd to STDOUT and then exits.

EXAMPLES

       smartd
       Runs the daemon in forked mode.  This is the normal way to run smartd.  Entries are logged
       to SYSLOG.

       smartd -d -i 30
       Run in foreground (debug) mode, checking the disk status every 30 seconds.

       smartd -q onecheck
       Registers  devices,  and  checks  the status of the devices exactly once.  The exit status
       (the shell $?  variable) will be zero if all went well, and nonzero  if  no  devices  were
       detected or some other problem was encountered.

CONFIGURATION

       The syntax of the smartd.conf(5) file is discussed separately.

NOTES

       smartd will make log entries at loglevel LOG_INFO if the Normalized SMART Attribute values
       have changed, as reported using the '-t', '-p', or '-u' Directives.  For example:
       'Device: /dev/sda, SMART Attribute: 194 Temperature_Celsius changed from 94 to 93'
       Note that in this message, the value given is the 'Normalized'  not  the  'Raw'  Attribute
       value  (the  disk  temperature  in  this  case  is  about  22 Celsius).  The '-R' and '-r'
       Directives modify this behavior, so that the information is printed with the Raw values as
       well, for example:
       'Device: /dev/sda, SMART Attribute: 194 Temperature_Celsius changed from 94 [Raw 22] to 93
       [Raw 23]'
       Here the Raw values are the actual disk temperatures in Celsius.  The way in which the Raw
       values  are printed, and the names under which the Attributes are reported, is governed by
       the various '-v Num,Description' Directives described previously.

       Please see the smartctl manual page for further explanation  of  the  differences  between
       Normalized and Raw Attribute values.

       smartd  will  make  log  entries at loglevel LOG_CRIT if a SMART Attribute has failed, for
       example:
       'Device: /dev/sdc, Failed SMART Attribute: 5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct'
        This loglevel is used  for  reporting  enabled  by  the  '-H',  -f',  '-l selftest',  and
       '-l error'  Directives.   Entries  reporting failure of SMART Prefailure Attributes should
       not be ignored: they mean  that  the  disk  is  failing.   Use  the  smartctl  utility  to
       investigate.

LOG TIMESTAMP TIMEZONE

       When  smartd  makes  log  entries,  these  are  time-stamped.   The time stamps are in the
       computer's local time zone, which is generally set using either the  environment  variable
       'TZ'  or  using  a  time-zone  file  such  as  /etc/localtime.  You may wish to change the
       timezone while smartd is running (for example, if you carry a laptop to  a  new  time-zone
       and  don't  reboot  it).   Due  to  a bug in the tzset(3) function of many unix standard C
       libraries, the time-zone stamps of smartd might not change.  For some systems, smartd will
       work  around  this  problem if the time-zone is set using /etc/localtime.  The work-around
       fails if the time-zone is set using the 'TZ' variable (or a file that it points to).

EXIT STATUS

       The exit status (return value) of smartd can have the following values:

       0:     Daemon startup successful, or smartd was killed by a SIGTERM (or in debug  mode,  a
              SIGQUIT).

       1:     Commandline did not parse.

       2:     There was a syntax error in the config file.

       3:     Forking the daemon failed.

       4:     Couldn't create PID file.

       5:     Config file does not exist (only returned in conjunction with the '-c' option).

       6:     Config file exists, but cannot be read.

       8:     smartd ran out of memory during startup.

       10:    An inconsistency was found in smartd's internal data structures.  This should never
              happen.  It must be due to either a coding or compiler  bug.   Please  report  such
              failures to smartmontools developers, see REPORTING BUGS below.

       16:    A device explicitly listed in /etc/smartd.conf can't be monitored.

       17:    smartd didn't find any devices to monitor.
              [NEW  EXPERIMENTAL SMARTD FEATURE] This could be changed to 0 (success) with one of
              the '-q *nodev0*' options, see above.

       254:   When in daemon mode, smartd received a SIGINT or  SIGQUIT.   (Note  that  in  debug
              mode,  SIGINT  has  the  same  effect  as  SIGHUP,  and  makes  smartd  reload  its
              configuration file.  SIGQUIT has the same effect as SIGTERM and  causes  smartd  to
              exit with zero exit status.

       132 and above
              smartd was killed by a signal that is not explicitly listed above.  The exit status
              is then 128 plus the signal number.  For example if smartd  is  killed  by  SIGKILL
              (signal 9) then the exit status is 137.

FILES

       /usr/sbin/smartd
              full path of this executable.

       /etc/smartd.conf
              configuration file (see smartd.conf(5) man page).

       /usr/share/smartmontools/smartd_warning.sh
              script  run  on  warnings  (see  '-w'  option  above  and  '-M  exec'  directive on
              smartd.conf(5) man page).

       /etc/smartmontools/smartd_warning.d/
              plugin directory for smartd warning script (see '-m'  directive  on  smartd.conf(5)
              man page).

       /var/lib/smartmontools/drivedb/drivedb.h
              drive database (see '-B' option).

       /etc/smart_drivedb.h
              optional local drive database (see '-B' option).

AUTHORS

       Bruce Allen (project initiator),
       Christian Franke (project manager, Windows port and all sort of things),
       Douglas Gilbert (SCSI subsystem),
       Volker Kuhlmann (moderator of support and database mailing list),
       Gabriele Pohl (wiki & development team support),
       Alex Samorukov (FreeBSD port and more, new Trac wiki).

       Many other individuals have made contributions and corrections, see AUTHORS, ChangeLog and
       repository files.

       The first smartmontools code was derived from the smartsuite package, written  by  Michael
       Cornwell and Andre Hedrick.

REPORTING BUGS

       To submit a bug report, create a ticket in smartmontools wiki:
       <https://www.smartmontools.org/>.
       Alternatively send the info to the smartmontools support mailing list:
       <https://listi.jpberlin.de/mailman/listinfo/smartmontools-support>.

SEE ALSO

       smartd.conf(5), smartctl(8).
       update-smart-drivedb(8).
       systemd.exec(5).

REFERENCES

       Please see the following web site for more info: <https://www.smartmontools.org/>

       An  introductory article about smartmontools is Monitoring Hard Disks with SMART, by Bruce
       Allen,      Linux      Journal,      January      2004,      pages       74–77.        See
       <https://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6983>.

       If  you would like to understand better how SMART works, and what it does, a good place to
       start is with Sections 4.8 and 6.54 of the first volume of the 'AT Attachment with  Packet
       Interface-7'   (ATA/ATAPI-7)   specification   Revision  4b.   This  documents  the  SMART
       functionality which the smartmontools utilities provide access to.

       The functioning of SMART was originally defined  by  the  SFF-8035i  revision  2  and  the
       SFF-8055i  revision  1.4 specifications.  These are publications of the Small Form Factors
       (SFF) Committee.

       Links to these and other documents may be found on the Links  page  of  the  smartmontools
       Wiki at <https://www.smartmontools.org/wiki/Links>.

PACKAGE VERSION

       smartmontools-7.3 2022-02-28 r5338
       $Id: smartd.8.in 5333 2022-02-26 00:15:22Z dpgilbert $